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SCMP : Old policy of no interferenc



South China Morning Post
Thursday  July 23  1998


Old policy of no interference likely to stay 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Manila 
A proposal to scrap Asean's policy of non-interference in members' internal
affairs in favour of "flexible engagement" appeared headed for defeat, a
senior Philippine diplomat admitted yesterday.

Foreign Under-Secretary Lauro Baja, who chaired a two-day meeting of
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) senior officials,
acknowledged the policy had met with opposition.

"Within Asean itself, innovative thinking had started to germinate and it
was thought that a dose of flexibility was good for the association," Mr
Baja said.

"But it soon became apparent that flexible engagement is best practised on
a personal basis rather than on a regional scope."

Mr Baja said his comments reflected the general sentiment of other senior
Asean officials who had met to prepare for a meeting of foreign ministers
starting today.

The ministers are expected to further discuss the flexible engagement
policy being pushed by Thailand and the Philippines amid soul-searching
prompted by the regional financial crisis.

It would mark a major shift within the 31-year-old bloc if members were to
comment openly on domestic policies of neighbours that also affect the
region.

Earlier, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon defended the proposal,
which has been strongly criticised by other members.

Mr Siazon said there had already been several cases where the practice had
been used within Asean. He cited former Singapore premier Lee Kuan Yew, who
in 1992 urged then Philippine president Fidel Ramos to fix the country's
power cuts.

"Lee called up president Ramos and said, 'President Ramos, you better fix
your power outage'," Mr Siazon said.

Mr Ramos felt "a little slighted" but understood and became determined to
solve the problem.

"This type of frank exchange has been going on in Asean for many years,
generally in private but more and more in recent times because of changes
within the region and also because of the growing integration of
countries," Mr Siazon said.

Meanwhile, opposition from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia had scuttled a
proposal for foreign ministers of Asean and key trading partners to issue a
statement on the regional financial crisis, diplomats said.